Most of the horizontal directional mud cleaning system is not equipped with decanter centrifuge unit as by using the 3-phase separation system including shale shaker, de-sander and de-silter unit, it can work good enough for removing the solids from drilling fluids. Centrifuge is relative high cost, which is also a reason the drilling contractor doesn’t equip it in the mud system.

However, for some high request drilling condition, the driller may use the heavy mud for better drilling performance. Sometimes the drillers add the certain chemicals to make the drilling mud heavier so that the mud can better protect the wall of the drilling hole. If the driller went to drill another well, the heavy chemicals need to be separated, and then the centrifuge could be used to do this job. In some other conditions, after many times recycling of the drilling mud, there is much ultra fine solid particles that cannot be removed by the shaker and cyclone unit, and then the centrifuge unit is needed.

GN Solids Control has nearly 10 years in fabricating the drilling mud system for HDD projects. This type mud cleaning system need to be compact structure and easy for transportation. See the picture in this article, both the de-sander and de-silter unit are equipped with under flow shaker for drying the discharged solids. The shakers used are 2-layer screen design. The bottom layer screen is used as primary shaker and upper layer screen to dry the discharges out from the cyclone units. This design greatly reduces the footprint of the mud system. And all mud tank top surface equipment are pre-installed on a frame with same base dimension as storage tank. When transport the mud system, the shaker and centrifuge units could be removed by lifting the frame for fast disassemble. With the frame, the equipment could be easily transported by flat bed trailer.

GN can provide both standard and customized HDD mud system for clients. Just send us your request, and then you will get a satisfying and cost effective solution.